Pages

Search This Blog

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

It's a beautiful fall day, and at 6 this morning I found myself cleaning out the fridge of a number of lovely root vegetables I'd purchased at the farmer's market and trying to figure out what to do with them.

Really, you could make this with any root vegetables, so long as you end up with approximately 6 cups or so. You can also replace the spices with 2 - 3 Tbsp of your favorite Ras el Hanout blend. And, of course, you can also make this in a regular pot to speed up the cooking time.

Slow Cooker tip for my high altitude readers: For high altitude cooking, add an additional 30 minutes for each hour of time specified in the recipe. Legumes take about twice as long at 10,000 feet as they would at sea level.

Stir together raw sugar or maple syrup and spices in a large bowl and set aside. Whisk egg whites and water in a separate large bowl until foamy. Add almonds to the egg whites and stir to coat. Transfer the almonds to the spice bown and toss to coat.

Spread almonds evenly on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake the almonds for 30-40 minutes. Stir, reduce the oven temperature to 200° and bake until the almonds are dry and golden, about 30 minutes more. Let cool before serving, about 20 minutes.

Tips

Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week, or refrigerate for longer and pop in the toaster oven at 300 degrees for 3-5 minutes before serving.

Servings: 12

Yield: 3 cups

Cooking Times

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time: 40 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1/12 of a recipe (1.7 ounces).

Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.

Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients using Living Cookbook.

Monday, November 8, 2010

This is one of the first foods I turn to after the first frost - a comforting, attractive, tasty and nutritious fall food. This is traditionally a German/Austrian dish, but this weekend we ate it together with tofu steaks marinated in an Asian sesame sauce and a wild rice pilaf - which proved to be an excellent combination!

1/4

cup

canola oil

2

onion coarsely chopped

1

med head

red cabbage, shredded roughly

2

cups

water

1/3

cup

apple cider vinegar

2

apples, peeled, cored and diced (preferably a tart apple)

2

Tbs

sugar, agave nectar, or honey

1

cube

vegetable bouillon

1

cup

raisins, craisins, blueberries, or any mixture of the three

2

tsp

cinnamon

1

tsp

cardamom

1/2

tsp

cloves, ground

1

tsp

allspice

1

Saute onion in oil until transluscent.

2

Add cabbage and toss to coat with oil. This will protect the color somewhat.

Sunday, November 7, 2010

This carrot cake has undergone a number of changes over 15 (!) years, to become a delightfully quirky take on a classic dessert - and one that significantly cuts saturated fat and calories (though still - eat with moderation!) while dramatically increasing nutritional content. At a recent writing retreat, my fellow writers loved it enough to demand a second cake over the weekend!

2

cups

whole wheat pastry flour

1

cup

sugar (light brown – raw sugar)

1.5

tsp

cinnamon

1.5

tsp

allspice

1

tsp

baking soda

1.5

tsp

baking powder

1/2

tsp

salt

4-5 large carrots, grated (at least 3 cups!)

1

tsp

vanilla

1

cup

canola oil

4

eggs, lightly beaten

1/2

cup

golden raisins

1/2

cup

dried cranberries, blueberries or raisins

1

cup

semi-sweet chocolate chips

8

oz

Frosting
Neufchatel cream cheese or soy "cream cheese"

2

Tbs

frozen orange juice concentrate

2

cups

powdered sugar

1

Mix dry ingredients in large bowl (flour through salt).

2

Stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. (To increase fluffiness, you can beat the egg whites separately until they are stiff, slowly add the yolks, and then fold into entire mixture).

3

Add dried fruit and chocolate chips.

4

Bake in oiled and floured 9x9 pan for about 50 minutes at 325 degrees.

After cooling, sift the powdered sugar into a bowl. Beat powdered sugar, Neufchatel cheese, and orange juice. This will make a runnier frosting than you may be used to, but it is delicious!

Servings: 15

Nutrition Information generated using Living Cookbook
Nutrition Facts

Serving size: 1/15 of a recipe (4.2 ounces).

Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.